Burgers & Booze

Good burgers. We didn’t have a reservation but showed up right when they opened at 6pm and promised to leave before 8pm, which was not a problem for us. Burgers are stacked high so they’re messy to eat but good. Sweet potatoes are thick cut and oven roasted. Regular fries are good.

Oh, that was worth going to Antwerp.
I understand that Burgers & Booze is a new restaurant/​bar in Antwerp and it certainly feels fresh. The walls are painted with various motives, from which the picture of Jules Winnfield (the one from Pulp fiction played by Samuel L. Jackson) stands out. Also the lights just casually hanging out from copper pipes add a nice touch.
We came there just after it opened on Saturday, but as we had no reservation, we had to take the last two available seats at the bar. The space was a bit limited, because it is the narrowest part of the restaurant where a person sitting at the bar, a table and an aisle for the waiters have to fit in a space of roughly 1.7 meter. But we managed to coexist on the limited space just fine.
The first thing you notice is the part that justifies the Booze part of the restaurant’s name. There is a lot of gins and available tonics to mix and gin & tonic is surely a signature drink here (*a gentle nod to the fans of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy*).
We order Royal with cheese (another nod to Pulp Fiction) and Grow Some Cojones (that is also a burger, to avoid any misunderstandings) with coleslaw and fries. After a while two ridiculously big burgers arrived. The burgers themselves were brilliant, as were the fries and coleslaw, which was done the traditional US way (raisins and all).
What bothered me a bit was the height of the burger, which ruled out eating it without an assistance of the cutlery. Yes, for the first time in my life I ate a burger with fork and knife. But there simply was no other way. I would actually appreciate if the dimension that was out of proportion would be width, not height. Well anyway, it was delicious and very enjoyable. The bun wasn’t dry, the meat was just about right and I have no complaints whatsoever. So more visits by me are very likely.

I don’t usually eat meat, Most burgers I find to be not to my taste — if I was a meat eater I’d be able to pinpoint it but as I am not, I’ll just say this: I came here by accident — GF dragged me here kinda. I was gonna go for muffins and coffee opposite this place — but she was all like «you can get that anywhere, that place looks kickass». Fiiiine. She’s a meat-​eater, and I don’t mind re-​trying meat dishes and whatever. Cool. So — first of all I love the design — one of the boards outside says something along the lines of «Boobs are the proof that men can focus on two things at the same time» — so immidiately, I though to myself «WINNING!». The menu is high in references to manly movies and movie characters. The place screams testosterone. So, right, the burger? I bit into it… And it was… AWESOME. Like rainbows and unicorns shootign from the skies. I then look at it… and it’s… somewhat «pinkish» and I’m like… errrr… «this supposed to be that way?» and ma gf is like «ye fool! if you don’t specify what you want, it’s usually medium-​rare» but I know allll about medium rare coz’ I watched Gordon Ramsy shout «IT’S RAWWWWW» 100 times. At any rate — I wolfed down the burger in less than a minute and it was good. Thoroughly enjoyed the taste. The server is cool too. Asian dude with a cool haircut. We came there another time, this time not by accident. And I was out of paper towls — and before I could get up to go get more — he had ma back all smooth and shit like «here’s a paper towl» basically — his attention was on his customers. How rare is that nowadays… mannn.,. ANYWAY — awesome food. Good service.

Had a lot of hope for this place, especially when I saw the wagyu on the menu. Unfortunately, they didn’t have it that day and had a burger with the smoked cheddar and bacon. I got really excited when they asked me how I wanted it cooked but was quickly let down when I found the burger was cooked medium well rather than medium. The smoked cheddar was nice and the burger wasn’t spiced at all (a common practice in this area). This place will get a 5 if they can deliver on the wagyu.

The second star is based on the first time we ate here. It took ages as well, but the place was packed and at least the food was decent.
So we gave it a second chance.
Today we had to wait a solid hour for our food, with maybe 3 of the other tables occupied. When it finally arrived, The Keyser Soze surprise burger’s surprise was that it had been burnt, and the veggie burger was one, sad lonely onion ring atop of some spinach, and that was it.

You can never go wrong with a good burger. I was already here when the place opened but I figured I would wait for a review untill I actually had dinner there. The menu is quite big, but there wasn’t really a burger that was super attractive to me. I like an original menu and this was more of a traditional menu card (the content, not the size). Nothing wrong with a traditional burger, or a double burger, with double cheese. Because that’s what we had.
We decided to share a burger at the bar (It was already nine o’clock and we had a lot of appetizers at the Unilocal event). As side dishes we chose the coleslaw and the patato wedges. Because the burger was huge –2 times a big chunk of delicious 100% beef burger– I didn’t even finish my half of the burger. I loved the patatos but the coleslaw was too sweet for my taste (even with raisins in it!).
We both took a glass of wine with our burger. It’s on the expensive side (4 and 4,5 €) for the quality of wine we got but the glasses were filled quite nicely. They might have to change that rose wine because it’s awfully sweet. You can get a mean cocktail here, and that’s what you should definitely do!
PS: They did have a nice looking veggie burger with mozarella en veggies and the option to have glutenfree buns.

I would leave a review but I’m really drunk from all the cocktails so I’ll just leave a list of al the cocktails I think are great
Old fashioned with bacon
Pickles margarita
Fatal bazooka
Pickleback (shot of bourbon with a pickle juice chaser I’m not kidding)
The burger was also great: Big Kahuna with truffle salami
And the dessert ermahgaaawd: chocomousse met all sorts of sprinkles ok I’m gonna eat it now byeeeeee